This application claims the priority of Korean Patent Application No. 2002-25906 filed on 10 May 2002 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a blower unit for an air conditioner, and more particularly, to a blower unit for an air conditioner which supplies air into the air conditioner.
2. Description of the Related Art
An air conditioner for a vehicle is to provide a pleasant condition by controlling temperature and humidity in the vehicle. According to its purpose, the air conditioner includes a cooling system to cool the inside the vehicle and a heating system to heat the inside the vehicle. The cooling system produces cool air by absorbing vaporization latent heat required for evaporation of coolant from air flowing around the evaporator while the coolant passes through the evaporator. The heating system produces hot air by inducing hot cooling water cooling an engine to flow into a heater core and heating air flowing around the heater core by the cooling water of the heater core. For this purpose, a typical air conditioner for a vehicle includes a blower unit for supplying air to the evaporator and/or heater core.
FIG. 1 is a sectional view illustrating a conventional blower unit which is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. sho 63-105466. Referring to the drawing, a conventional blower unit 10 includes a case 11, a blower wheel 12 installed in the case 11, and a blower motor 13 connected to the blower wheel 12 and driving the blower wheel 12. A cooling path 11a through which some of cooling air blown by the blower wheel 12 passes is formed at one side in the case 11. A space for accommodating the blower motor 13 is formed in the lower portion of the case 11.
A cover 14 is coupled to one side of a lower portion of the case 11 to form a blow path 15 connected to the cooling path 11a. One end portion 14a of the cover 14 is supported by the case 11 while the other end portion 14b of the cover 14 is coupled to the lower portion of the case 11 by a screw 16 which is a coupling member.
In the blower unit 10 having the above structure, some of cooling air blown by the blower wheel 12 is input to the blow path 15 through the cooling path 11a. The cooling air input to the blow path 15 is supplied to the lower portion of the blower motor 13 to cool the blower motor 13.
However, since the cover 14 is coupled to the case 11 using the screw 16 which is an additional coupling member, the coupling of the cover 14 to the case 11 is complicated so that a manufacturing cost is raised.
FIG. 2 is a sectional view illustrating another conventional blower unit which is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. hei 7-28707. Referring to the drawing, a conventional blower unit 20 includes a blower case 21, a blower chamber 22 having a scroll shape installed in the blower case 21, a concentric fan 26 installed in the blower chamber 22 to absorb internal air or external air, and a fan motor 27 accommodated in a lower portion of the blower case 21 to drive the concentric fan 26. An air outlet 23 is formed at one side of the blower case 21. Although not shown, an evaporator and a heater core are installed at the downstream of the air outlet 23.
A blow path 25 is formed as a blow path member 24 is coupled to one side of the lower portion of the blower case 21. The blow path 25 connects the inside of the blower chamber 22 and a lower portion of the fan motor 27.
According to the blower unit 20 having the above structure, some of cooling air blown by the concentric fan 26 is input to the blow path 25 from the inside of the blower chamber 22. The cooling air input to the blow path 25 is supplied to the lower portion of the fan motor 27 to cool the fan motor 27.
However, in the conventional blower unit 20, both ends 24a and 24b of the blow path member 24 which are approximately perpendicular to each other are coupled by being inserted in the blower case 21. Thus, the assembly of the blower unit 20 is complicated so that productivity is lowered.
In particular, since both ends 24a and 24b of the blow path member 24 are coupled to the case 21 along both directions which are approximately perpendicular to each other, automation of the assembly of the blow path member 24 with respect to the blower case 21 is practically very difficult.